Early College Week

 

Once again, we are getting ready for Early College Week!!  College, as we know, means any type of training beyond high school (4 year degree, 2 year degree, industry certification, military, etc.).  We also know that education opens doors and our goal is to teach our students to be life long learners and to take advantage of as much education as they possibly can!  

Not only is Early College Week about celebrating college, but also about celebrating all of YOU.  You are the teachers/support staff that help provide students with not only academic skills, but you are encouragers and believers that all students can learn and help students see their potential!  I often think about my husband during this week.  He was one of the students sitting in your classrooms today that was a first generation student, smart and hard working.  His ag teacher saw that and made him bring an application to Purdue to the classroom and made him fill it out in front of him and helped him along the way.  His path to Purdue wasn't easy, but it was his ticket and he did it because someone else believed in him and encouraged him along the way!  (He was REALLY lucky that he met me, too!  Lol!)   

As educators, you are creating life changing opportunities for all of our students!  Thanks for all you do!

           To help us celebrate Early College Week we have several surprise and delights this week, please see below: 

JEANS WEEK!!!!

Monday: Chick Fil-A Sandwiches to celebrate all teachers & support staff for preparing all of our students for our Early College program!

Tuesday:  Student celebration - Ice Cream for students in grades 10-12 during lunch!  Everyone wear their Black Early College Shirts for a picture!  

Thursday: Early College Mentor Meetings (Pizza for Mentors and students)

Friday:  Sweet Treats for our teachers and our day to celebrate Laura Purcell and our Ivy Tech partnership!

Important Information: 

ILEARN - This week we are starting the ILEARN test for students in grades 7 & 8.  Please take a look at the updated schedule HERE.  We will be testing 2-3 periods Tuesday and Wednesday and 1-3 on Thursday!  Please help the other students stay quiet during passing periods as much as possible.  

ILEARN PEP Session:  We are going to use WIN on Monday for a short pep session for students in grades 7 &8  to celebrate learning before the ILEARN tests.  Teachers are going to perform a short skit and we are going to recognize students that grew their scores from the prior years of testing and students who earned Pass +.   Please do not code junior high students for WIN on Monday.  

END OF YEAR:  If you haven't noticed already, the natives are starting to get really restless as we start to enter the end of the school year.  This is a really, really important time to keep students busy in meaningful work these last 23 days.  Here are some ideas: 

           * If you want to give students time to study - don't give them time on their own, structure their time into a game (we know games are very engaging to students.)

                     Marzano's Academic Game Ideas

           * Create authentic learning opportunities for students - how can you connect to the community to empower students? 

           * Create opportunities for movement in your classroom: (Gallery Walks, 4 Corner Activity,)

                                                                         Marzano's Corner Activity/Body Representation Ideas

   Updated Grades:   I know it is super hard, but please make sure your gradebooks are up to date as we move forward through the end of the school year.  We want to make sure students are getting adequate feedback and parents know where their students are at!  Please let me know if you need help with this!           

      Some Things Going On Around HERE:  

AVID - You will be hearing about a new program that we are going to start in the junior high called AVID.  This program is designed to help students who are 3.5-2.0 students (middle students) that sometimes get overlooked because they make pretty good grades, they complete their work and fly under the radar.  The program is designed to give these students the skills they need to push forward so they can be better prepared for college level courses.  12-15 students in grades 6,7,& 8 have been identified and will have a class period for AVID next year.  We are excited to have Jessie Bryant, Brennan Malone and Abe Schwartz teaching a section next year!

NAPE/PIPE Process:  This school year a team from the high school and elementary have been participating in the PIPE process sponsored by Toyota.  PIPE (Program Improvement Process for Equity) is a process to help ensure that we are using research based practices to provide equity in education.  We had to pick a project to work on and try to improve our practices.  We decided to focus on trying to get girls more comfortable in non-traditional career fields, such as construction, ag, welding, diesel, etc.  This week, Jane Goffinet has been leading our team to activites for 6th grade students around this idea.  On Monday, high school girls in non-traditional career fields will be meeting with 6th grade girls and talking about their career pathways.  Friday, we have 4 women professionals in non-traditional careers to come and talk to the 6th grade girls as well.   Our goal is to expose students to the possibilities and see that anything is possible for them!  Thanks, Jane, for your leadership!

Congratulations:  Congratulations to Josh Craney's Enterprise team of Bowdie Cronin, Jacob Wagner, Noah Benjamin and Jackson Wallace presented a problem in Commodore Manufacturing and how they solved it!  The judges were so impressed with their process and data driven approach - they said their engineers in their company do not solve problems that well!  They won $6,000 for their program! 

 

Art Show: Once again, Mrs. Poehlein and her studnets have put together a wonderful art show centered around the Prehistoric World!  If you haven't had a chance to stop by, I would encourage you to do so.  It will be open to the public Tuesday evening from 3:00 - 7:00 p.m.  Bring your family!

Band Concert - The final band concert will be this Thursday, Aprils 27th at 6:00 p.m.  Hope to see everyone there!!

FFA Banquet - The PC FFA Banquet will be Sunday, April 30th!

Power of Positivity

As we approach the end of the year and we embark a season of testing, I am reminded about the importance of a growth mindset and positive thinking.  Science proves that when you believe in yourself or have others believe in you that your outcomes change for the better!  Whether you are shooting a basketball blindfolded (in the video clip below) or taking a test, the way you approach life and approach each other can make all of the difference in the world.  

Below is a short youtube clip that proves this scientific fact.  It is a great reminder about how much of a postive impact we can have on each other.  Thanks for always believing in our students and cheering them on in every aspect of their lives.  Our students acheive great things because of you!

       Power of Positivity - Here is the short video that explains the research.  It may be a great piece to show your students before they start testing in the next few weeks!  

Important Information: 

Assistant Lunch and Learn:  Teaching assistants, I would like to invite you to the library during your lunch time for a little lunch and learn opportunity on Wednesday, January 19th.  After our last PD day, many of you were interested in some activities to help students engage with the work more.  We would just like to take a few minutes to share with you some of those strategies so you have time to practice what feels comfortable to you from now until the end of the school year!   Since it will be a working lunch, I will have lunch for you.  This should not affect your WIN.  Let me know if you have any questions/concerns.  See you there!

ILEARN Proctors:  HERE is a copy of the ILEARN schedule.  If you are a proctor, we will have a meeting on Tuesday morning at 7:30 a.m.  We will talk about the important parts of proctoring, go over the schedule with details and talk about a small ILEARN pep session (I emailed out earlier).  See you Tuesday morning for this important meeting!  

House Leader Meeting:  We will have a House Leader meeting on Wednesday, April 19th at 7:30 a.m. in the High School Library.  This is a very important meeting to discuss our Community Service Day on May 5th.  Please be there.  

Perry County Trades Fair:  On Tuesday, April 18th, juniors and a few seniors will participate in the Trades Fair at Ivy Tech from 8:00 - 10:00 a.m.  It is going to be a great day for students to learn about all of the opportunities in our region.  Dana will be sending out a list of students soon!  

Education Pathway - Jane Goffinet will be taking the Education Pathway students to Ball State on Friday, April 21st.  Perry Central is luck to be a part of a grant to promote Education Apprenticeships - a new and innovative way to grow our own teachers!  Jane is leading this pathway and doing a great job!  They have even started a teaching club!  

Enterprise Competition - Josh Craney and Michael Jarboe have two teams participating in the Conexus Indiana Enterprise Competition this week.  Student teams will give a virtual presentation about a problem they have encountered in their student ran business and how they solved it.  Good luck to our students!

STEM Challenge - Stephanie Walsh took 7 students to the STEM Challenge at Oakland City University on Friday.  They didn't come out with any cash prizes, but they learned a lot and had a great time.  Thank you, Stephanie for taking the students!

Workplace Challenge - Carol's business students prepared a business plan for a t-shirt company.  On Tuesday, the top 4 groups will present their plans to the Small Business Develoment Center representative for authentic feedback on their proposed business.  The goal is for hopefully their business plan to come to fruition and be a plan for the business enterprise program! 

Legislative Updates

 

We are nearing the end of this legislative session.  It is a budget year, so it is always an exciting ride.  They always remind us that the legislative process is a marathon, not a sprint!  I do believe that.   :-)  

Below are a few notes out of the Senate Education Committee you may be interested in: 

* 1002 - High School Redesign Bill        

- Removed the requirements for Career Fairs, Career Class in high school and the 30 minute meeting requirement with an "intermediary

- Redefines Intermediary as any non-profit organization that strives to provide career advice/counseling for students and connect them to opportunities in the region.  It also adds a grant opportunity for intermediaries to gather some funds to support this work.  (I think it could help bridge the gap between school and work - I just hope that person is good and has the best interest of our students in mind!)  

- States that new diploma requirements must be in writing by December 31st 2024 and new requirements would begin 2024-25 school year and the first cohort of students to go through the new diploma requirements for Class of 27-28

- Career Saving Accounts would be available for students to use for career coaching, post-secondary training, transportation/equipment, certification fees, etc. 

* 1635 Education Matters Bill

- Would cap graduation waivers - 9%, 6%, to 3% or less over three years.  If we have waivers over this percentage it would go against our graduation rate - students could still earn the waiver.  Legislators think that waivers do not allow students to gain skills they need to be successful in the economy

- Will bring back an A-F lettergrade as early as this school year  

SB 6 - Regulatory Relief Bill - received a LOT of (hours of) negative feedback.  This bill currently has language that supports teachers/media specialist could be "charged" for disseminating materials harmful for minors.  Also gives parents a lot of control over what is in the library.  They are not sure who is really for this bill, so hopefully it will disappear!

Most of these bills have been through the committee work and will be going back for a second reading on the House or Senate floor.    If you have quesitons about these bills or others, I am happy to share the podcasts that I listen to.  The bills I am listing are bills the Indiana School Principal's Association is following the most.  There are other updates about other bills I can share as well!

Important Information: 

Professional Development Day - HERE is an updated version of our Professional Development Day Agenda.  I have added some links for you to have, etc. 

       * Teachers - Please bring your computers to the Faculty Meeting in the morning - this will be in the library after the safety meeting at 8:00 a.m.

      * Assistants - you will need your computers as well (or it will be nice to have).  I will meet with you and get you started in the Flex Room after the Safety Meeting in the main cafeteria

Early College Survey - PLEASE:  Our High School General Account can earn $400 for surprise and delight items if we get good participation in the Early College Survey!  This survey is also very important as we look at how we can improve our Early College program, etc.  We are asked to do this through our RECN grant.  This is for ALL teachers.  If you could fill this out by Friday, it would be appreciated!    

https://uncg.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6lLG2a4As65GPlk?sc=1886

ILEARN Schedule: I am still working on coverage plans for the ILEARN schedule, but you can see changes on this live document. I will send out a final document once all details have been put into place. We will test the last week of April and first week of May (specific dates and times are on the link). This test is for 7th and 8th grade students. ILEARN SCHEDULE We will have a meeting for proctors very soon!

RISE - Just a reminder that Domains 1 & 3 are due this year. We only require that these are updated every three years. Please try to have them finished by the end of the week. If you need an extension on this due date, please see Jody or Phil. Also, don't forget that you have a professional goal in the SFS system as well. Your PLC team picked a strategy you wanted to focus on. You may want to remind yourself of your 2nd semester goal!

STEM Grant Meeting - On the agenda for Monday afternoon is a STEM Grant meeting. If you feel you will have a workplace challenge or PBL finished by the end of the year and would like to make sure you have documentation for the $400 stipend, please attend the meeting!! A lot of great projects happening this month:

* Carol Schwoeppe - Business Plan Presentations to the Small Business Development Corporation

* Vanessa Johnson - Chemistry in the workplace - students will visit Waupaca and see some chemical reactions happen in the industry and understand different careers around this topic!

* Adam Stowe is starting a new PBL this month in his World History classes that connect students to local heroes

GOOD LUCK!!

* We have two teams traveling to the STEM Challenge at Oakland City on Friday!

* Conexus Indiana is sponsoring a virtual competition for Enterprise programs. Josh and Michael have two teams competing - students have to present a problem in their company they had to solve and how they solved it! It will be a great experience for our students.

* Mrs. Schwoeppe is taking Ace Emerson and Ali Thomas to the National BPA conference in California to compete!! Good luck!

Heartwarming Tidbits

 My body was exhausted but my heart was full after last week.   So many great things happening: 

Vanessa Johnson invited Kaydyn Jarboe's grandfather into their medical class to talk about his Kidney transplant.  To their surprise, the donor made his first public appearace to share his experiences with our students.  I wish all of you could have heard their story and witnessed the most geniuine and loving smile that Mr. Jarboe shared when talking about this experience.  What a great opportunity for our students to not only learn about the medical side of a kidney transplant but also about what community love looks like - when a community comes together (not only the donor, but all of the people that helped them harvest crops, etc.) to save a neighbor's life.   My eyes were not dry during this!  Thank you, Vanessa, for providing this community learning opportunity for our students.  

Senior Top 10 Banquet was last week.  PC Alumn, Bryce Lain, gave the talk at the banquet.  It was so great to watch one of our graduates talk about how Perry Central prepared him for college and life.  He even quoted his cross country coach, Jason Barnett!  He remembered during a time he was worried about going to college that Mr. Barnett gave him great advice and he shared that with the students - because he still uses the advice today.  As a teachers and coaches, just remember ALL of you have such a powerful influence on our students.  Great event!

 This week, because of a spare washer and dryer, I got to visit a couple of our students who really had a tough life while at PC.  They lived in high poverty and while in school lost both their mom and dad over a period of time.  Our school family really wrapped their arms around these kids as they worked hard to make it on their own.  Because of welding/manufacturing classes, internships, dual credits and relationships at Perry Central - both kids have been able to purchse their own homes and are doing so well.  One is even starting to train others in the company he works in!!!!  What all of you do matters - this is just one example of the many that happen every year!  

Thanks for making a difference!!!!

Important Information: 

PLC Meetings: We are finishing up PLC meetings this week.  The feedback I get from all of you will help shape our PD day on April 10th!  Four Day Work WEEK!!!

Learning Lunch Reminder:  Just a reminder, if you sign students up for Learning Lunch you did it because they have late work.  Even though we do not punish students by giving them zeros on the work they don't turn in or doc them for it being late (because we want their grade to reflect what they know), it is important to hold them accountable for being late.  The accountability comes from them having to serve the Learning Lunch.  If students get work finished before they serve their Learning Lunch - that is GREAT, but we want them to serve at least 30 minutes of their time since the assignment was late.  Our goal is to help students learn to not turn in work late.  This is important for Billie Sue and Debbie as well because they are working hard to hold that line for all of us!  Thank you!

Important Spring Dates:  You can find the Spring Date list HERE.  We will keep adding to it. 

Commodore Pride - If you are interested in helping with Commodore Pride, there is a meeting Tuesday morning, April 4th, in Vanessa Johnson's room.  

Community Service Projects:  Junior High Houses will be working on deciding where they want to conduct their Community Service projects soon.  We plan to have our big day on Friday, May 5th.  If anyone knows of someone in the community that needs something or a non-profit organization that could use some help, please share with Lauren or Jody.  We like to let the kids decide, but sometimes they need to know what needs are out there!    We know that as humans, when we have the opportunity to serve others, we create our own happiness.  We hope that we can instill this into our students! 

 

Meet At the TRACK!

Ashley Hubert shared this meme with me.  It is so true about all of us!  To help support our mental health the next few weeks, I would love to start a Walking Club.  Anyone that is interested can meet at the track at 3:15 and we will walk for 20 minutes together!  We can meet by the ticket booth by the CTE building!  Bring a friend!!!!  

We will walk 2 days a week for sure - Tuesday, April 4  and Thursday, April 6 this week.  

Spaceship Earth

Over Spring Break, I had the honor of going on the PC Band Disney trip with Justin and the rest of the band. While I may never do 4 parks in 4 days and sleep two nights on a bus ever again, it was a great time to be with family - both my personal family and school family. On top of that, the sun was shining and it was warm, a much needed bonus.

One of my favorite rides was in Epcot, Spaceship Earth. It wasn't a thrill ride, but a travel back to the dawn of humanity, when early man painted on cave walls and humans didn't have a great way to communitcate. It then allowed us to navigate all of the changes in communication and watch how ideas spread as humans went from no communication, to writing on cave walls to the invention of the Gutenberg's printing press. As books were printed the wheels of time turned even faster as we entered the age of media, from newspapers announcing the end of the Civil War to the televised broadcast of the moon landing - and beyond. As we traveled, it was evident that society never stopped changing and as education (books/reading) became more and more available our society moved even faster.

This ride really resignated with me as we are living in such a pivital time of change as our information is not even in books but now with the Internet, social media, artificial intellegence, and more. Information that was once at the mercy of a printing press and slow transportation modalitites, is now at our fingertips with our cell phones and Amazon Prime next day delivery! For me, all of that change made me think about two things: 1. the importance of literacy AND 2. the way we engage students in learning. The days of teaching from books and memorizing information are skills of the PAST. Students need purposeful lesson that create meaning, skills that allow students to critically think across several pieces of text and professional skills such as communication, teamwork and resiliency.

We have all heard the quote, "The only thing constant in life is change." and sometimes we get frustrated in education because there are always "new things". But the truth is, education has to change because education is the driving force of the economy and the world we live in. We will continue to try to be intentional and only chase research based change, but as professionals in the field, we have to make sure we are preparing students for their FUTURES, not their past. It can be an overwhelming but exciting/rewarding task - but worthy of the effort.

Speaking of Change - Here are some Design Thinking Examples from Twitter and our own Payton Malone (Payton's students are learning about scientific design through their Workplace Challenge with Anu, vertical grow towers - they are designing a scientific experiment to determine how much water is needed for a grow tower of lettuce. They have each created their designs and hypothesis and are sharing with each other - practicing their public speaking skills and learning from each other):

           

Important Information: 

PLC Meetings:  This week, I will be sending a few agenda items to Science, Social Studies and English PLC teams and will catch up with math, Island and Special Education soon.  My goal is to talk with each group about progress made in our PLC process along with other goals that pertain with disciplinary literacy and discuss goals for the last quarter and next year.    

Advisory Board Meeting:  We will be hosting one of our quarterly Advisory Board meetings on Tuesday morning for community members.  CTE teachers are encouraged to visit our partners from 7:45 - 8:00 a.m. We will ask a few students to share some of the work their work, get feedback on our core values (professional skills grading scale we are developing), and more.  We appreciate our community members and need them to help lead us so we can be preparing students for skills of the future.

Internship Training:   We have been working on making our internship program stronger.  One of our ideas is to host a training for our incoming interns.  So, on Wednesday, March 29th we will be hosting a lunch and learn for junior who have signed up for an internship.  The training will be from 11:00 - 12:30 on this day, so students will be out of 4th period a little early.  Whitney Zellers from Work One will be presenting to students and we will provide lunch for them.  I will send a list of students.

Spring Dates:  I realized that I forgot to prepare a list of spring dates for everyone!  HERE is a link to a google document with upcoming dates.  We will be adding to it.  This helps for your planning purposes.

School Play: The school play will be this Friday, March 31st (7:00 p.m.)  and Saturday, April 1st (2:30 p.m.)   Hope you can make it out to support our students!   

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

P-Tech Notes

 This past week, we had another opportunity to visit New York's P-Tech Schools.  It was a good trip - a lot of driving in a pretty small bus that was either really, really hot or really, really cold - but we made it.  We visitied  Hamilton Fulton Montgomery BOCES, which is in Johnstown, NY (pretty far north - there was at least 4 inches of snow on the ground there) and then back to Hudson Valley Pathways Academy, which is really an exciting model of what we can do for our students.  We were there with 3 other schools from Indiana who aspire to develop poly-tech programs as well.  

I asked our team to reflect on our visit, sharing their biggest take-a-ways.  The first word that came to all of our minds was COMMUNITY.  To build a program and meaningful learning experiences for our students we have to develop a strong, collaborative and creative community.  I have been thinking about it all weekend and then I listened to a podcast today with Andy Stanley and the former SVP from Apple, Angela Ahrendts, that really solidified that for me.  The SVP really changed the business model of Apple and did that by looking outward - how can Apple serve the greater community. And just like Apple, if we can do this, we can humanize learning experiences and energize each other and our students about learning!   The process of harnessing this power begins with unlocking trust, which then unlocks intuition and ulitmately establishes belief in the organization, allowing everyone to achieve and thrive to their full potential!  (If you want to listen to the podcast you can find it HERE.)  Also, when we think about building community, how do we do that with our high school students - I feel like our House system in the junior high is a start, but how do we create opportunities that will put COMMUNITY in the forefront?  

The other big take-a-way at Hudson Valley, they always remind us that your schedule should highlight your values.  For example, they spend two hours of their week working on building communities in their schools (SEL).  Building community, allowing for student voice and helping students gain these valuable skills are important to them so they make sure it is embedded.    They also make time for teacher collaboration and student collaboration.  I think we start small, but we can't stop thinking about how we can make our day look different - we don't have to teach in 7 periods everyday, the time is ours and we can make room for what is important to us!

Other take-a-ways: 

     * There isn't a wrong way to perform PBL, except to do the work for the students! 

     * Design Thinking is moving away from student regurgitation (students giving you what they think you want to hear) to purposeful learning for an authentic audience.

     * The learning process and progress is just as important as the end product

     * We have to realize we are LEAD LEARNERS - it is okay to learn with students.  We don't have to know everything and are not expected to know everything - we just need to be passionate about learning and a model for what learning looks like!  When we let go, our students shine.

    * Principles of Significant Learning Experiences Provide:  Adult world mentor, Authentic context, Relevance, Connected to Family and Friends, Pursue a Passion, Expert Advice given to students, Interdisciplinary work, meaningful product, (real) High Stakes

Important Information: 

Equity Meetings:  Just a reminder we will have students join us during our PLC team meetings this week.  Please use the WIN document to find coverage for your WIN groups - if you need help figuring it out, please let me know.  We are using the following schedule: 

        Monday, 2nd WIN - Math and Island Team (Library)

        Thursday, 2nd WIN - English & Special Education (Alyssa's Room)

        Friday, 2nd WIN - Science & Social Studies  (Vanessa's Room)

Faculty Meeting:  We will have a faculty meeting on Wednesday, March 15th at 7:25 a.m.  A light breakfast will be served.  

House Competition:  Junior High Houses will have their Quarter 3 Competition on Friday during 6th and 7th periods in the gym!  

Surprise and Delight (Faculty & Staff):  Larry Lautner will be delivering one of our favorite meals for luch on Wednesday:  Chick-Fil-A Chicken Sandwiches!  It will fuel us up to get through the rest of the week!  Also, I think it is a great week to wear jeans.  Please remember to dress them up and look professional!  

Surprise and Delight (Students):  Phil is working on a plan to surprise students with pancakes Thursday morning!!!  Should be fun.  He will send details soon!

National Honor Society Induction:  Tuesday, March 14th @ 5:30 p.m. 

Parent Vape Session (opportunity for the community to learn about vaping trends):  Tuesday, March 14th @ 6:00 p.m.  

Book Studies:  

       * In Search for Deeper Learning - Tuesday, March 14th - 7:25 a.m. High School Library  

       * 5 Dysfunctions of a Team- Junior High English Team, Thursday, March 16th 1st Lunch

Visitors: 

     * Tuesday, a few teachers from Crawford County will be visiting to talk to junior high math and English teachers about block classes

     * Last week:  Josh Craney hosted Conexus Indiana, a state organization that helps promote manufacturing across the state of Indiana.  Our students gave a wonderful presentation and we are one of 15 schools in the state of Indiana in the Student Based Enterprise Coalition, Conexus Student Industries.  

Professional Development Day, April 10th - Rough Draft

Perry Central Poly-Tech

This week, for our Poly-Tech Grant, I had to fill out a one pager for our Perry Central program. It really helped me wrap my head around how to describe our program - so I wanted to share it with you!  The whole idea of poly-tech programs is to provide students with deep work-based learning opportunities, project based learning experiences, opportunities to not only learn rigorous standards and professional skills and in the end have a credential of currency!  Most schools are starting their poly-tech programs with a small group of students.  With all of the programs all of you have already started, we feel we are in the unique position to provide poly-tech to ALL of our students.  We are trying to adopt a WHOLE school model, which is very innovative.  

I have provided a copy of the one-page outline that defines Perry Central Poly-Tech.  I wanted to share it with you.  I believe our biggest challenge and opportunity is to impelement more project based learning and workplace challenge opportunities to our students.  It sounds easy, but it is going to be a lot of hard work for all of us.  We are going to have to UNDO the structures we find normal in a public school and keep pushing ourselves to think outside of the box.   We are going to fail and even cuss a bit, but I believe that the outcomes will be worth it.

Perry Central Poly-Tech One Pager

Why am I passionate about Workplace Challenges/Project Based Learning?  I posted a few pictures below.  I think you can fill in the narrative, especially when you see the types of students it touches most!   Sometimes, I think it is easy to think Project Based Learning/Workplace Challenges are for our best students. . . sometimes I think we miss an opportunity to change the trajectory of others by not being willing to change how we teach all students!!   I believe that changing how we conduct school will change lives - it already has with YOUR leadership!  Keep it up!  You are doing great things - why stop here??

       High School Students Speaking to 8th grade parents on scheduling night - talking about their pathway and the benefits of it and what they do!                   

  

Students participating in off-campus contests and winning scholarships!

Students presenting to adults outside of our school and sharing their work.  (They signed up to do this, by the way - they wanted to share!!)

Students presenting in Indianapolis to a state-wide network about school enterprise to state business leaders!!

If you have questions about any of this work, please reach out anytime!

Important Information: 

Grading Period:  Due to our "storm day" on Friday, we are going to move the end of the grading period back two days, in case you needed some time to catch students up or finish a test for this quarter.  The end of the grading period will be Tuesday, March 7th, grades are due Friday, March 10th at midnight and we will pass out report cards on Tuesday, March 14th.  If you have a grade you want for the 4th quarter, just date it after the 7th.    Please let us know if you have any questions! 

WIN:  We will begin the new WIN locations this Monday, March 6th.  Phil will send out a PBIS lesson for you to go over with your students 4th period and they should report to their new locations that day.  A few reminders:  (Here is the WIN Document)

     * Assistants, check your assigned locations on the document again.  Other teachers may ask you to help them at different times, but this will be your base location. 

     * Skyward has been updated so teachers can take attendance.  Assistants, I have added you to grade books that you are assigned to.  

     * You can still pull students for WIN (and are encouraged to).  

     * We are sure we made some mistakes making a change this quickly, so please let us know if you find them.  

     * THANK YOU for your flexibilty and feedback.  We will see how this goes the last quarter. 

Upcoming Dates: 

March 13th - Math & Island Team - PLC Learning (Students visit)

March 14th - In Search for Deeper Learning Book Study  7:15 a.m. HS Library

March 15th - Faculty Meeting 7:25 a.m. / Surprise and Delight Lunch!

March 16th - English & Special Education - PLC Learning (Students visit)

March 17th - Science & Social Studies  - PLC Learning (Students visit)

Thanks to the boys basketball team for a great season!  Their moms did a little pep session for them Friday evening before they left!  #good2bgreen